CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Solo Slayer
Before she went downtown that evening to Lindemann Avenue, Buffy picked up Spike's motor cycle and the updated ray gun that Willow and Tara had been working on. It was well after dark by then but Zachary and Dawn were still in the diningroom doing their study hall thing.
Willow pulled Buffy off into the kitchen, out of sight of Zachary, to give her the gun. "Now, just point it at one of the demons while he's shooting out a fire jet," Willow explained. "Then pull this trigger. Whatever power they're using is probably an ongoing one. In other words, there's probably a group of crystals somewhere sitting in the middle of a pentagram or a circle constantly sending out energy to them. If the magic originates from humans, the diamond will short circuit it. If not, get out of there quick. Oh, and this is where the diamond fits in."
"All right," Buffy said. She already had the diamond in her pocket for safe keeping. "Take care of Dawn, will you?"
"Sure, Willow said. "If you don't mind, we told her she could have Zachary over for dinner tonight."
"This is starting to look serious," Buffy whispered to Willow. "Before I know it, I'll be giving the bride away."
"Oh, I think we've got a couple of years before that happens," Willow whispered back. But she smiled at the idea of it. Dawn all beautiful in white, Zachary looking all egghead and cute. Buffy giving the bride away and herself playing the role of maid of honor. Yep, a definitely nice dream.
"I'd better go out the back way," Buffy said, "so Zack doesn't see me. The less he knows the better."
Outside, Buffy strapped the ray gun to the back of the motor cycle and took off in the direction of downtown. She wasn't the best of all motor cycle drivers. But Spike had given her a few lessons on it. She took it because she needed some form of transportation and she was afraid the Fire demons might recognize Xander's car if they saw it again.
She parked in an alleyway at the far end of Lindemann Avenue, next to one of the last standing buildings. This was another advantage to driving a motor cycle, you could park it pretty much any place you liked so it would be out of sight. After slipping the diamond into place on the ray gun, Buffy considered the best way to enter. A broken window made the most sense. Of course the Shadows would hear her. But that was OK.
Using some discarded metal from the burned out building next door, she rammed through the glass of the standing building. Then she climbed in. Ohanzee seemed to indicate that the Shadows didn't carry weapons. But she didn't want to make them nervous by her sudden appearance.
"Hello?" she announced to the dark and empty first floor, "Ohanzee sent me!"
"Hello," a voice in the darkness said. "We thought you might come." A Shadow demon came out into the faint light shining through the broken window. His step was silent and his gray form seemed to be just another part of the gloom. "I am Masichuvio. I am leader here."
"Masichu . . .?" Ohanzee had been bad enough. But this name was impossible. "Do you mind if I just call you Mas? You can call me Buffy."
The Shadow blinked his large black eyes. This made no sense to him. But then, he didn't know much about humans. "You may call me that," he said in his moany voice. "Police were here last night. We expect an attack maybe this night, or next."
"I brought a gun that I'd like to try out." She held up Warren's ray gun. "I don't know if it'll work. But it's worth a try. Where do you think the Fire demons would come in?"
"Downstairs. They always come from below. Then spread through the building." Masichuvio led the way to the back of the main floor. "We locked door to slow down the Fires. The human watchmen left the keys behind. No humans want to stay here now." He unlocked the door and Buffy peered down the darkened stairs. She wondered how she could shine a flashlight so she could see and be ready to shoot her gun, all at the same time. She realized that if Spike had been there he could have led the way or held the light for her. It seemed like such a long time since she'd done something like this without his help. It felt like a part of her was missing.
She was wondering if maybe she should ask one of the Shadows to accompany her, when a call from across the floor alerted them to a series of fires that were beginning at the only other standing building on the block besides the warehouse at 666.
"The Fire demons!" a Shadow near the broken window called. "They're attacking the building at the other end of the avenue."
"I'm on my way," Buffy said to Masichuvio. "You lock this door in case they try coming up here at the same time."
"Yes," Masichuvio said, "Then I will follow."
Buffy ran to the open window and tore off down the street, bringing with her the ray gun and the piece of metal that she had used to break the window earlier. The other standing building was already showing signs of fire on several floors. She managed to break a window here too. No need for a flashlight, though. The Fire demons had already started several small fires and were chasing a number of Shadows in various directions.
With a little prayer, Buffy turned on the ray gun and pointed it in the direction of one of the Fire demons. If it didn't work, she'd have to hightail it back out the window. A blue light shot out from the gun and latched onto the fire jet of the demon closest to her. The jet stopped its pursuit of the Shadows, paused for a second, and then went out, surprising both Buffy and the Fire demon. "What do ya know?" Buffy said out loud. "It works."
The Fire demon looked stunned. He raised his hands to his chest and flung them out again, but this time only a fireball emerged from his hands. One of the Shadows stopped in his flight toward the outside and returned to fight the Fire demon that she'd disabled. The Fire demon tried to shoot out another fire jet, but again he was only able to come up with a fireball. The Shadow easily dematerialized around it. Then rematerialized and began to struggle in a rather awkward style of hand to hand combat with his previous attacker.
"So that's what's supposed to happen," Buffy said to herself. She could see how the two demons were equally matched and why they didn't generally bother anyone else. They were really rotten fighters when it came to fists. In fact, it seemed more like they were trying to knock each other over.
Since the building fire was already well underway, Buffy did what she should have done the last time she'd fought the Fire demons. She kept near the broken window and covered the departing Shadows, who were now able to put up something of a battle because she was turning off the fire jets of all the Fire demons that came into her path. Eventually, the fire jets came on again. But at least the ray gun was giving the Shadows a fighting chance.
Masichuvio came in through the wall behind her and watched. He gestured for her to leave as the sirens of the fire engines got closer. "Your weapon works," he said, his face looking as impressed as a Shadow's face can. "We are grateful. Go now. Trucks are coming. Police. The Fire demons will not attack again tonight."
"All right," Buffy said. "But I'll be back in a couple of nights. Maybe we can keep them out of that last building."
"Maybe," Masichuvio agreed. If Buffy had known the Shadows better, she would have recognized the sound of hope in his voice.
- - - - - - - - - -
Buffy felt better about the world as she motored back uptown. Maybe they'd lost the battle. But they might very well win the war for the next building. And what she'd done tonight would put whoever was behind all this on notice. She was feeling pumped.
"It worked!" Buffy announced as she strode into the house.
Willow jumped up at once. She'd been catching up on school work in the diningroom. "It worked?"
Tara and Dawn came in from the kitchen.
"Yep. It was awesome. It stopped the fire jets cold and then all they could shoot out afterwards were these itsy bitsy fireballs. They were nothing in comparison. Of course, they eventually were able to shoot out fire jets again. But it gave the Shadows plenty of time to fight back."
"That must mean there are humans behind this," Tara said. "Witches probably."
"Well, at least this gives us a fighting chance." Buffy hefted the weapon up, then pulled out the diamond and put it in her pocket again. "I only wish we could do it on a larger scale."
"We probably could," Willow said. "But we'd need a whole lot of demons chanting the right spell and at least one of them would have to be old enough and experienced enough to be able to control the full magical powers of the diamond."
"You think Spike could do it?" Buffy asked.
Tara and Willow exchanged glances.
"Well, Spike might be able to help," Willow said. "But I don't know if he's had enough magic experience to really do the controlling."
"Speaking of Spike," Buffy said. "He didn't come home did he?"
"No. Not yet."
"I checked for him at Willy's. But he wasn't there. That little furry guy said he would ask around. He's becoming our mascot. Like a little puppy dog on two legs. I think he's got the hero worship bad for both me and Spike."
"Well, better that than something else," Tara said. "Did you have any dinner?"
"I guess I could go for something," Buffy said. "But I'm really not hungry. I better put this away." She held up the gun and headed for her room. As she walked in, the success of the fight was still upon her. But it all fell away when she opened her closet door and saw one of Spike's shirts hanging there. Suddenly the quiet in the room felt eerie. She touched the red shirt lightly with her hand and then quickly threw the ray gun in the back of the closet and the diamond into one of her shoes.
Tara fed Buffy some leftover meatloaf, which Buffy picked at lightly sitting on the floor in front of the couch. She tired to act involved in the conversations they were having about the television show they were watching. But the excitement of the chase downtown had worn off completely by then. All Buffy could do was listen for the front door. When everyone else decided to turn in, she followed them upstairs, but couldn't get herself to actually climb into bed. She didn't want to be alone in it again, tossing and turning and endlessly listening and reaching for him. Instead, she went back downstairs with a blanket and sat up in front of the television for the rest of the night. At least then she'd know immediately if he came in.
First she watched an old re-run of "Columbo." Then a movie came on about a group of friends who couldn't get their lives together. And that was followed by an endless array of infomercials. Every now and again, Buffy would drop off. But her sleeping was only sporadic.
When Tara came downstairs in the morning, Buffy snapped up immediately. What? What is it?" she asked groggily.
"It's just me," Tara said. "I was wondering if you were making breakfast. I saw your door open. Did you get any sleep last night?"
"Not really."
Tara believed it. Buffy's eyes were heavily ringed with black circles. Her face was long and drawn. "You just rest here. I'll make breakfast. You know, Willow and I don't have any classes again today. We could go to the Magic Box and I could try and come up with a spell that might lead us to Spike."
"Would you?"
"Of course. I know how worried you are. It isn't like him to stay away like this."
"And this time we didn't even have a fight. Maybe after you all head out, I'll try swinging by his crypt again. Maybe then I'll look for that little Nazari. Maybe he heard something."
"That's a good idea. You never know." Tara headed off to the kitchen and began cooking.
"Buffy looks terrible," Willow whispered when she came into the kitchen shortly after.
"I don't think she's slept much in the last two days," Tara said. "And she didn't eat much of the dinner I gave her last night. She can't keep this up. I think she got an adrenaline high from her fight with the Fire demons last night. But I don't think lasted long. I told her I would try to find a spell that would lead us to Spike. You don't have to help me. There must be one that I can do on my own."
"Oh, but I don't mind helping," Willow said. "I think it's OK for me to do magic for something like this."
"No. You let me do it. You can come along and keep me company. If I need help I'll ask you."
Solo Slayer
Before she went downtown that evening to Lindemann Avenue, Buffy picked up Spike's motor cycle and the updated ray gun that Willow and Tara had been working on. It was well after dark by then but Zachary and Dawn were still in the diningroom doing their study hall thing.
Willow pulled Buffy off into the kitchen, out of sight of Zachary, to give her the gun. "Now, just point it at one of the demons while he's shooting out a fire jet," Willow explained. "Then pull this trigger. Whatever power they're using is probably an ongoing one. In other words, there's probably a group of crystals somewhere sitting in the middle of a pentagram or a circle constantly sending out energy to them. If the magic originates from humans, the diamond will short circuit it. If not, get out of there quick. Oh, and this is where the diamond fits in."
"All right," Buffy said. She already had the diamond in her pocket for safe keeping. "Take care of Dawn, will you?"
"Sure, Willow said. "If you don't mind, we told her she could have Zachary over for dinner tonight."
"This is starting to look serious," Buffy whispered to Willow. "Before I know it, I'll be giving the bride away."
"Oh, I think we've got a couple of years before that happens," Willow whispered back. But she smiled at the idea of it. Dawn all beautiful in white, Zachary looking all egghead and cute. Buffy giving the bride away and herself playing the role of maid of honor. Yep, a definitely nice dream.
"I'd better go out the back way," Buffy said, "so Zack doesn't see me. The less he knows the better."
Outside, Buffy strapped the ray gun to the back of the motor cycle and took off in the direction of downtown. She wasn't the best of all motor cycle drivers. But Spike had given her a few lessons on it. She took it because she needed some form of transportation and she was afraid the Fire demons might recognize Xander's car if they saw it again.
She parked in an alleyway at the far end of Lindemann Avenue, next to one of the last standing buildings. This was another advantage to driving a motor cycle, you could park it pretty much any place you liked so it would be out of sight. After slipping the diamond into place on the ray gun, Buffy considered the best way to enter. A broken window made the most sense. Of course the Shadows would hear her. But that was OK.
Using some discarded metal from the burned out building next door, she rammed through the glass of the standing building. Then she climbed in. Ohanzee seemed to indicate that the Shadows didn't carry weapons. But she didn't want to make them nervous by her sudden appearance.
"Hello?" she announced to the dark and empty first floor, "Ohanzee sent me!"
"Hello," a voice in the darkness said. "We thought you might come." A Shadow demon came out into the faint light shining through the broken window. His step was silent and his gray form seemed to be just another part of the gloom. "I am Masichuvio. I am leader here."
"Masichu . . .?" Ohanzee had been bad enough. But this name was impossible. "Do you mind if I just call you Mas? You can call me Buffy."
The Shadow blinked his large black eyes. This made no sense to him. But then, he didn't know much about humans. "You may call me that," he said in his moany voice. "Police were here last night. We expect an attack maybe this night, or next."
"I brought a gun that I'd like to try out." She held up Warren's ray gun. "I don't know if it'll work. But it's worth a try. Where do you think the Fire demons would come in?"
"Downstairs. They always come from below. Then spread through the building." Masichuvio led the way to the back of the main floor. "We locked door to slow down the Fires. The human watchmen left the keys behind. No humans want to stay here now." He unlocked the door and Buffy peered down the darkened stairs. She wondered how she could shine a flashlight so she could see and be ready to shoot her gun, all at the same time. She realized that if Spike had been there he could have led the way or held the light for her. It seemed like such a long time since she'd done something like this without his help. It felt like a part of her was missing.
She was wondering if maybe she should ask one of the Shadows to accompany her, when a call from across the floor alerted them to a series of fires that were beginning at the only other standing building on the block besides the warehouse at 666.
"The Fire demons!" a Shadow near the broken window called. "They're attacking the building at the other end of the avenue."
"I'm on my way," Buffy said to Masichuvio. "You lock this door in case they try coming up here at the same time."
"Yes," Masichuvio said, "Then I will follow."
Buffy ran to the open window and tore off down the street, bringing with her the ray gun and the piece of metal that she had used to break the window earlier. The other standing building was already showing signs of fire on several floors. She managed to break a window here too. No need for a flashlight, though. The Fire demons had already started several small fires and were chasing a number of Shadows in various directions.
With a little prayer, Buffy turned on the ray gun and pointed it in the direction of one of the Fire demons. If it didn't work, she'd have to hightail it back out the window. A blue light shot out from the gun and latched onto the fire jet of the demon closest to her. The jet stopped its pursuit of the Shadows, paused for a second, and then went out, surprising both Buffy and the Fire demon. "What do ya know?" Buffy said out loud. "It works."
The Fire demon looked stunned. He raised his hands to his chest and flung them out again, but this time only a fireball emerged from his hands. One of the Shadows stopped in his flight toward the outside and returned to fight the Fire demon that she'd disabled. The Fire demon tried to shoot out another fire jet, but again he was only able to come up with a fireball. The Shadow easily dematerialized around it. Then rematerialized and began to struggle in a rather awkward style of hand to hand combat with his previous attacker.
"So that's what's supposed to happen," Buffy said to herself. She could see how the two demons were equally matched and why they didn't generally bother anyone else. They were really rotten fighters when it came to fists. In fact, it seemed more like they were trying to knock each other over.
Since the building fire was already well underway, Buffy did what she should have done the last time she'd fought the Fire demons. She kept near the broken window and covered the departing Shadows, who were now able to put up something of a battle because she was turning off the fire jets of all the Fire demons that came into her path. Eventually, the fire jets came on again. But at least the ray gun was giving the Shadows a fighting chance.
Masichuvio came in through the wall behind her and watched. He gestured for her to leave as the sirens of the fire engines got closer. "Your weapon works," he said, his face looking as impressed as a Shadow's face can. "We are grateful. Go now. Trucks are coming. Police. The Fire demons will not attack again tonight."
"All right," Buffy said. "But I'll be back in a couple of nights. Maybe we can keep them out of that last building."
"Maybe," Masichuvio agreed. If Buffy had known the Shadows better, she would have recognized the sound of hope in his voice.
- - - - - - - - - -
Buffy felt better about the world as she motored back uptown. Maybe they'd lost the battle. But they might very well win the war for the next building. And what she'd done tonight would put whoever was behind all this on notice. She was feeling pumped.
"It worked!" Buffy announced as she strode into the house.
Willow jumped up at once. She'd been catching up on school work in the diningroom. "It worked?"
Tara and Dawn came in from the kitchen.
"Yep. It was awesome. It stopped the fire jets cold and then all they could shoot out afterwards were these itsy bitsy fireballs. They were nothing in comparison. Of course, they eventually were able to shoot out fire jets again. But it gave the Shadows plenty of time to fight back."
"That must mean there are humans behind this," Tara said. "Witches probably."
"Well, at least this gives us a fighting chance." Buffy hefted the weapon up, then pulled out the diamond and put it in her pocket again. "I only wish we could do it on a larger scale."
"We probably could," Willow said. "But we'd need a whole lot of demons chanting the right spell and at least one of them would have to be old enough and experienced enough to be able to control the full magical powers of the diamond."
"You think Spike could do it?" Buffy asked.
Tara and Willow exchanged glances.
"Well, Spike might be able to help," Willow said. "But I don't know if he's had enough magic experience to really do the controlling."
"Speaking of Spike," Buffy said. "He didn't come home did he?"
"No. Not yet."
"I checked for him at Willy's. But he wasn't there. That little furry guy said he would ask around. He's becoming our mascot. Like a little puppy dog on two legs. I think he's got the hero worship bad for both me and Spike."
"Well, better that than something else," Tara said. "Did you have any dinner?"
"I guess I could go for something," Buffy said. "But I'm really not hungry. I better put this away." She held up the gun and headed for her room. As she walked in, the success of the fight was still upon her. But it all fell away when she opened her closet door and saw one of Spike's shirts hanging there. Suddenly the quiet in the room felt eerie. She touched the red shirt lightly with her hand and then quickly threw the ray gun in the back of the closet and the diamond into one of her shoes.
Tara fed Buffy some leftover meatloaf, which Buffy picked at lightly sitting on the floor in front of the couch. She tired to act involved in the conversations they were having about the television show they were watching. But the excitement of the chase downtown had worn off completely by then. All Buffy could do was listen for the front door. When everyone else decided to turn in, she followed them upstairs, but couldn't get herself to actually climb into bed. She didn't want to be alone in it again, tossing and turning and endlessly listening and reaching for him. Instead, she went back downstairs with a blanket and sat up in front of the television for the rest of the night. At least then she'd know immediately if he came in.
First she watched an old re-run of "Columbo." Then a movie came on about a group of friends who couldn't get their lives together. And that was followed by an endless array of infomercials. Every now and again, Buffy would drop off. But her sleeping was only sporadic.
When Tara came downstairs in the morning, Buffy snapped up immediately. What? What is it?" she asked groggily.
"It's just me," Tara said. "I was wondering if you were making breakfast. I saw your door open. Did you get any sleep last night?"
"Not really."
Tara believed it. Buffy's eyes were heavily ringed with black circles. Her face was long and drawn. "You just rest here. I'll make breakfast. You know, Willow and I don't have any classes again today. We could go to the Magic Box and I could try and come up with a spell that might lead us to Spike."
"Would you?"
"Of course. I know how worried you are. It isn't like him to stay away like this."
"And this time we didn't even have a fight. Maybe after you all head out, I'll try swinging by his crypt again. Maybe then I'll look for that little Nazari. Maybe he heard something."
"That's a good idea. You never know." Tara headed off to the kitchen and began cooking.
"Buffy looks terrible," Willow whispered when she came into the kitchen shortly after.
"I don't think she's slept much in the last two days," Tara said. "And she didn't eat much of the dinner I gave her last night. She can't keep this up. I think she got an adrenaline high from her fight with the Fire demons last night. But I don't think lasted long. I told her I would try to find a spell that would lead us to Spike. You don't have to help me. There must be one that I can do on my own."
"Oh, but I don't mind helping," Willow said. "I think it's OK for me to do magic for something like this."
"No. You let me do it. You can come along and keep me company. If I need help I'll ask you."